One day. Three countries.

It’s now Saturday, I think….Yesterday was crazy. We woke up in Germany, travelled to Denmark to visit for a few hours, then got on a train to Sweden that evening. On paper, that seemed reasonable, but was rather a mad thing to do!

Our first train, from Hamburg to Copenhagen boarded a ferry in order to cross the sea to Denmark, which was an experience! Some people didn’t make it quite that far, as there was an ID check just before the train boarded the ferry and some people had been trying to cross the border without correct documentation. Having seen the customs officers and a few armed soldiers marching these families and individuals to the border control office made me appreciate my very welcome Irish passport!

We visited Copenhagen in December 2014 for a few days and absolutely loved it. It was much warmer this time round and after a rest in the sunshine at Nyhavn, we headed for Christiania, often called Freetown Christiania, and established in 1971 by a group of hippies who occupied some abandoned military barracks on the site. They created their own set of society rules, completely independent of the Danish government and Christiania is now well known for its graffitied walls, workshops, homemade houses and cannabis sellers. I found the vibe a bit weird there. I can appreciate the intention behind it, but I didn’t quite feel comfortable. I doubt that was anything to do with the the Christianites themselves. Nevertheless, we filled up on lamb, hummus and tzatziki to keep us going for our long train journey ahead!

At 21:47 we left Denmark for Hässleholm in Sweden, where we then changed onto a sleeper train for Stockholm at 23:35, disrupting a few of our  compartment companions  who had already settled in for the night by the time we boarded. We arrived in Stockholm at 5:31.

Coffee. Required. Stat.

-F xx